Customer-led economy – customers getting paid?! Part 2 of 2

Yesterday in Part 1, we looked at the different models of a what is fast becoming a standard feauture in anything we buy – customer-led services, products and yes, buildings and neighborhoods. However, just to show you how quickly this is all evolving, Trendwatching provides a summary of the next step – getting paid for it – and they even have their own term (albeit a bit trite):

“Generation C(ontent) is joining Generation C(ash). If consumers produce the content, if they are the content, and that content brings in money for aggregating brands, then revenue and profit-sharing is going to be one of 2007’s main themes in the online space. It’s not like brands will have a choice: talented consumers are going to be too sought after to remain satisfied with thank you notes. Get ready for an avalanche of revenue sharing deals, reward schemes and sumptuous gifts aimed at luring creative consumers.” Some examples:

– Intel and Netflix offer $1 million to help them come up with new products and services respectively.
– No less than seven (see Generation Cash article) video-hosting services (like YouTube) reward you with $ the more they’re viewed. One of these days we’ll set up such a system for the cool places that you live in or visit (see image).

Now, how does this apply to co-designing and developing cool places in your city as part of the CoolTown beta community program?
– $10,000 reward for referring a developer to investment capital
– 10% price reduction on homes that you co-design, since you’re saving the developer marketing, realtor, inventory, marketing analysis and market uncertainty/risk costs.
– Lead a local beta community as part of the development team and earn about $20,000-$60,000 per 20-50 units of housing built via the customer-led model.